Nicole Whittingham, director of Wilson Cooke, takes us through a week in her working life. To suggest another senior media or creative figure for A Week In My Life, please email david@prolificnorth.co.uk.
Monday 7th May
Happily not in the office for the hottest early May Bank Hol on record – but still up early for a family boxing session.
I don’t mean fighting at home – I mean me, husband Lee and son in the gym – plenty of bag work, kick work and sparring with the PT.
Later we head to our favourite pub in the village – busy but relaxed, everyone enjoying the sunshine while the kids play on the green.
Brain’s never off work for too long, so after a G&T (maybe two) I’m ending the day with some prep work for a monthly review of our partner clients.
Must remember to: Share an interesting article on flash briefing opportunities in voice search with the rest of the team.
Tuesday 8th May
School run traffic makes me a couple of minutes late for our board and senior management meeting – business strategy and performance.
Needn’t have worried – I walk in to the end of a joke at my expense, being told for the millionth time by digital marketing director John.
In my defence, when you’re tired, ‘Ironmongery’ said in a certain accent sounds like ‘I’m hungry’ – the client laughed anyway…
Later I’m reviewing some of our recent branding campaigns for Kyocera – it’s nice when the client’s favourite is the same as yours.
Afternoon: off to view a potential new city centre office space – we’re bursting at the seams in our current place.
Must remember to: Meal prep for tomorrow with no fish – microwave stunk the place out yesterday.
Wednesday 9th May
Interviewing this morning – massive challenge to find the right people that fit/enhance business culture, never mind have the right skillset.
Considering how hard it is, I’m happy we’ve already added three key positions in client management and business development this year.
Next I’m making final tweaks to a storyboard for a video testimonial with our client Co-op Academies – they’ll have up to 40 schools by 2020.
Afternoon: continuation of the constant office battle for control of the radiators (I’m always cold) and Sonos speaker (it’s always loud).
Concede defeat with dignity and head home to work on an important pitch for a big potential client in the financial sector.
Must remember to: Take the spare Macbook leads I’ve accumulated back into the office.
Thursday 10th May
An early start to break the back of a strategic branding project for a new business services client.
The internal/external customer insight work has been done, now I need to formulate and brief it in to the team.
Then I’m feeding back on some creative for Thomas Cook Sport – plenty of campaign elements to be ready for the Premier League fixture announcements.
Involved afternoon too, early phases of a branding project – currently defining the customer sample group and insight scope for a large UK manufacturer.
It’s been a busy one, so swimming with my son later is some very welcome ‘switch off’ time.
Must remember to: Send some stuff back – desk is being overrun by Amazon boxes.
Friday 11th May
I ask for a coffee with extra hot milk at Starbucks – John insists there’s no such thing – they’ve never corrected me though.
Doesn’t matter anyway as it goes cold while I’m on a client call, finalising complex adjustments to their data policies, in line with looming GDPR.
After lunch – reviewing research done by account exec Sophie on the suitability of Instagram shopping for a long-standing B2C client.
Later, delighted to drive past the Manchester HQ of one of the UK’s largest housing groups, Jigsaw Homes and see the new branding we created.
Monthly gym challenge – four foot bar jumps in half an hour – smashed my personal target of 500 last month but I’m after Lee’s 700+ total.
Must remember to: Get on with benchmarking and gap analysis for e-commerce clients – that’s next week though, too tired today.
